Physicists offer a possible explanation for the rare claim of earthquake “lights”

By Andrew Grant, 14:18 PM March 12, 2014

DENVER — Beads and flour might help explain a rare and mysterious phenomenon: a type of lightning known as earthquake lights. People have sometimes claimed to witness them before or during major earthquakes. New results presented here on March 6 at an American Physical Society meeting showed that shifting grains of some materials can induce remarkably high electrical voltages. The same principle, on a larger scale, may occur when soil particles shift during earthquakes, they now report.